Ok so I started loosing weight in mid Aug by accident and just kept going... Started at 207 I can't believe I admitted that in public! Now Oct 11th I am down to 173 !

When I started out I wanted to be down to 170 by Oct 16th as we are having a girls only mini reunion. I will hit that goal!

Then I wanted to be 160 by my week in Vegas vacation Nov 22nd. I am pretty sure that is obtainable.

Here is the catch, my daughter just sprung a Dec. 11th wedding on me! (and Im going to be a GRANDMA! ) I would love to be 150-155 by then.

It is getting harder everyday, the weight loss is getting slower and slower. I have added a 15 min workout video to target my problem area my belly and I am trying to run everyday, but only a half mile so far...im really not a runner!!!

Im around 1000 calories so it would be hard to cut more calories. Any suggestions? BTW im 5'7 and a half I tell my husband! I am 37 and I have 3 kids 20, 17 and 14. I say it is baby fat but 14 years later thats not working for me!

How does your protein ratio look? It helped me quite a lot to make sure my protein level was like 30-40%, so you might want to take a look at that. Also at 1000 cal/day you may actually need to increase your calories a bit to lose more weight. I know that sounds nuts, but your pretty tall and sound like you lead a fairly busy life, so you might actually be in starvation mode, which means your body will work really hard to maintain and won't let go of any of that stored fat. Oh, and the other question is are you getting enough water?

Protein: I am not a meat eater at all, so I struggle with protein intake.

Calories: This is a tough one for me, I have no metabolism at all (thanks mom) and traditional means of weight loss have never worked in the past. I have done the Curves workout 5 days a week and I gained inches! They were so shocked they let me out of my contract! Cutting calories seems to be the only thing that works. Are you thinking like 1200-1500? That scares me to death!

Water: Not energy drinks? I do need to work on my water intake and will take your advise and start that effort today!

Hi Rita, you may want to check out this calculator to see what you burn...it takes into account such factors as age, size, and activity level. I found it more helpful than the FitDay one. Almeeker is right; you may be "training" your body to get used to fewer and fewer calories, and no one wants that! However, individual mileage varies, but I would think it would be worth a try to see what a few extra calories could do, especially if all the traditional methods in the past that didn't work involved cutting calories like that. If you were particularly small or much older, I could see 1000 being okay, but here it does seem low. Also, I am not sure of the Curves plan, but if you can do some weight training and get some more muscle tissue on you, that will increase your metabolism. Muscle is active tissue and it burns calories...fat just sits there. Good luck; here's the site:

You might want to consider using HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) for your running. The idea is you jog/run/sprint (depending on your fitness level) for a short amount of time then walk until you have recovered and then repeat. When I started I would jog (slowly) for 30 seconds then walk for 90 seconds. I have built this up to running for 20 seconds then walking for 40 seconds. (The information I read says the optimal is a 1:2 split). The advantage of this is that studies have shown that the residual calorie burn continues for up to 24 hours after the exercise. Essentially you burn twice the calories doing HIIT compared to standard steady state cardio. This is thought to be due to your body being in a ready state for the next high intensity interval. You can google for more information but my take is it allows you to burn more calories without extending the time or your running.

I would think curves would be a great program, as long as you aren't using energy drinks for rehydration. It is a circuit program, correct? Did they check your body fat? I cut out every drink except water and also all chips and desserts to lose my weight (I had about 20 lb to lose too). I did a mixture of circuit training, HIIT, weight training and running. I used a trainer for the first 4 months and did it on my own after. The trainer was the best money I ever spent.

I also tracked everything I ate and planned my meals in advance to make sure I wouldn't go over. I even tracked my supplements; did you know a fibre supplement - 1 serving - has 20 calories? So does an omega 3 chew and a calcium chew.

If you are having trouble running, you could also do run/walks starting at running for 1 minute and walking for 1 minute, moving the running portion up by 1 minute each week. Start at 20 minutes total. You could also try bringing an MP3 player along and using music to make it less boring.

When you have a lot of extra weight to lose, dropping 2-3 pounds/week is feasible, but when you're just barely overweight, your body is going to make that very hard to do. It is normal for your weight loss to slow down as you go, because the less you weigh, the fewer calories you burn doing all the same things. It's OK. I think for your health and your peace of mind, you might want to consider revising your goals a bit or at least be flexible with yourself. Also, your body will only metabolize fat so quickly. If you starve it trying to speed up your weight loss, you'll lose more muscle than fat, not to mention you won't have the energy to exercise.

So the short version: it might be more reasonable to plan on losing about a pound a week from here on out. You might try gradually raising your calorie intake to about 1500/day on average, but that's assuming you count carefully. More exercise wouldn't hurt either.

It's good to have goals, but don't let the scale take over your life. You'll look great at your daughter's wedding whether you weigh 150 pounds or 160 or even 170. Don't let a missed goal put a damper on all the wonderful things you have going on! You can always take a deep breath and start over with a new goal.

Protein: I am not a meat eater at all, so I struggle with protein intake.

I highly recommend buckwheat and quinoa. They're both really amazing foods that are NOT grains--buckwheat is the fruit of the plant, and quinoa is the seed. They both are complete proteins and contain an awesome balance of all 8 amino acids. They're complex carbohydrates, and they don't give you a blood sugar spike.

Basically, they're awesome super-foods and will help get your protein levels up.